Massachusetts agrees to lower cap on greenhouse-gas emissions

Massachusetts will begin ratcheting down how much carbon dioxide large, fossil-fueled power plants are allowed to produce next year under a nine-state pact aimed at curbing greenhouse gases believed to drive climate change.

By David Riley

The Patriot Ledger, Quincy, MA

By David Riley

Posted Feb. 19, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 19, 2013 at 7:09 PM

By David Riley

Posted Feb. 19, 2013 at 12:01 AM
Updated Feb 19, 2013 at 7:09 PM

BOSTON

» Social News

Massachusetts will begin ratcheting down how much carbon dioxide large, fossil-fueled power plants are allowed to produce next year under a nine-state pact aimed at curbing greenhouse gases believed to drive climate change.

The plan would drop the region’s existing cap on total emissions from 165 million tons per year to 91 million tons. The cap would drop 2.5 percent a year after that until 2020.

The 2013 cap figure is roughly the amount of carbon dioxide power plants produced in the region last year.

The change is meant partly to preserve progress the state has made in cutting emissions since the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative began, said Kenneth Kimmell, state Department of Environmental Protection commissioner.

Emissions have plunged as power companies switched to increasingly cheap natural gas instead using fuels such as coal, which produces far more carbon dioxide.

Kimmell said Thursday that the new plan should rein in emissions by another 80 million to 90 million tons in the coming years. The agreement among the New England states, New York, Delaware and Maryland could be a national model, said Richard Sullivan, state secretary of energy and environmental affairs.

“I think it gives us a chance, not just regionally, but nationally, to start to change the discussion points,” he said at a press conference on the plan.

Environmental groups praised the changes, but at least one said the state needs to do much more work if it expects to meet its goal to cut greenhouse emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050.

“That’s where you’re talking more transformative change in terms of how we go about pretty much everything we do,” said Sue Reid, vice president and director of the Conservation Law Foundation.

The multi-state initiative, launched in 2009, requires power producers of 25 or more megawatts to buy allowances to emit carbon dioxide. The states sell allowances at auction and split the proceeds.

Kimmell said the cost of allowances has been low – $1.93 per ton, compared to about $10 a ton under an older but similar program in California – because the cap has been so much higher than power producers need. That’s proven too low to drive cuts in emissions, he said.

The lower cap will drive up the cost of allowances, Kimmell said. He thinks $10 per ton is likely by 2020.

That could mean more incentive for power plants to find cleaner ways to operate.

“It will raise costs for dirtier plants and it will lower costs for plants that are more energy-efficient,” said George Bachrach, president of the Environmental League of Massachusetts.

The changes also could mean more costs for consumers. Kimmell said the new cap would add 39 cents to an average homeowner’s power bill of $72 a month.

The lower cap seems designed to raise money for the state more than cutting emissions, said Robert Rio, senior vice president of the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, a business group.

Page 2 of 2 - “It’s just a way to get more money and raise prices for traditional power to make it look like all this alternative power is better,” he said.

Kimmell said the changes would yield about $350 million for Massachusetts. To date, the initiative has raised about $178 million for the state. Reid said the state is required to spend most of that on energy-efficiency programs that yield $2 to $3 for every dollar invested, which also has helped cut emissions.